2024 Volume No 47 – pages 238-252
Title: Microfluidic bone chip to study osteogenesis of porous substrate topographies in normal and osteoporotic microenvironments |
Authors: J Yang, P Duan, Q Liu, H Yu, F Fang, X Liu |
Address: Institute of Biomedical Engineering, West China School of Basic Medical Sciences & Forensic Medicine, Sichuan University, 610041 Chengdu, Sichuan, China |
E-mail: liuxiaohg at scu.edu.cn |
Abstract: Natural bone is a material with a hierarchical porous structure; therefore, the pore size of bone tissue at the micro-scale is crucial for osteoblast function and osteogenesis. However, the physiological mechanisms behind pore size-regulated osteogenesis remain unclear. Trabecular separation is one of the main parameters of bone trabeculae structure, which is the gap between the trabeculae and can be understood as porosity. This study uses a bioinspired bone chip made from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to mimic the multiscale microstructures of healthy and osteoporotic bone tissue based on data on trabecular separation from healthy and osteoporotic mice. Microchannels in the chip were made in the same topology and substrate but at different micro-scales. The result showed that osteoblasts seeded into the smaller microchannel (200 μm in diameter, mimicking healthy bone) demonstrate greater osteogenic capability and autophagy than in the larger one (350 μm in diameter, mimicking osteoporotic bone). In addition, changes in osteogenesis between each microchannel after using the autophagy inhibitor chloroquine (CQ) indicated that osteogenesis was accelerated by autophagy in the 200 μm microchannel. Finally, we found stronger osteogenesis in the 200 μm microchannel, which depends on the activation of Hippo/YAP signaling. This bioinspired bone chip, which mimics the cellular behavioral changes in the osteoporotic microenvironment at the tissue level during the transition from healthy to osteoporotic bone, is expected to be the ideal in vitro platform for studying osteoporosis (OP). |
Keywords: Osteogenesis, microfluidic, bone, organ-on-a-chip, osteoporosis. |
Publication date: June 14th 2024 |
Copyright policy: © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Forum Multimedia Publishing, LLC. This article is distributed in accordance with Creative Commons Attribution Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Article download: Pages 238-252 (PDF file) |
